Investigation into Electoral Allegations Against Several Government Officials in Fars Province

The Deputy of Justice in Fars Province announced the investigation into the allegations against "11 executive managers" in the province regarding violations during the recent presidential elections. Ahmad Rahmanian, the Deputy for Crime Prevention in Fars Justice, told Mehr News Agency that 55 electoral violation cases have been formed so far, and 102 male and female suspects have been arrested. According to this official, all of these individuals, except for five, have been released on bail. Mr. Rahmanian stated that among these eleven individuals are three governors and several directors general, and "even higher positions". He noted that these 11 individuals "had conducted propaganda in favor of certain candidates". Previously, the spokesperson for the judiciary had reported violations by more than 60 government and executive managers in connection with the elections and warned: "Executive and governmental managers should be cautious not to act excessively." On May 30, the public prosecutor of Mazandaran also reported the summoning and formation of a judicial case for several government managers on charges of electoral violations. Asadollah Jafari, the prosecutor of Mazandaran, without providing precise statistics on the number of detainees, said that some heads of presidential election campaigns and four government managers have been summoned to the prosecutor's office due to electoral violations. On June 1, the Chief Justice of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province also reported the summoning of five executive managers in connection with electoral violations to the provincial prosecutor's office, emphasizing that these managers were involved in "electoral violations". Fars News Agency reported on Wednesday, June 3, that a director general of education in Tehran was arrested for "electoral violations" and released on "one hundred million tomans bail". The Tehran Education Department described these reports as "baseless" and denied them. The Chief Justice of Tehran Province also stated on Friday, June 5, that he was unaware of the arrest of several education managers, announcing that most of the 120 detainees from the election day have been released, but their cases remain open in the prosecutor's office. Gholamhossein Esmaeili announced that the cases of these individuals "related to electoral violations including vote buying and selling" are under investigation in the prosecutor's offices of Tehran Province counties. Media close to the principlists have accused officials of Hassan Rouhani's government of interfering in the presidential elections without providing details. In contrast, Hassan Rouhani has accused institutions under the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, including the Revolutionary Guards, Astan Quds Razavi, the state media, and the judiciary, of interfering in the elections in favor of Mr. Raisi. In this context, the arrest of several individuals on charges of "theft of organizational documents" by an election headquarters has been reported. The denial of the arrest of several education managers on charges of "electoral violations" has also been issued, along with a strong response from the Ministry of Interior regarding the issue of "legitimate votes" and doubts about the integrity of the elections. Raisi has once again called for an investigation into "engineered violations" in the elections.